Dennis Henigan

Dennis Henigan, a former Vice President of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, is author of “Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People,” and Other Myths About Guns and Gun Control (Beacon Press).

AP Photo/Evan Vucci Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh leaves a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Capitol Hill. A s both supporters and opponents of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination marshal the arguments most likely to persuade swing Democratic and Republican senators, his writings and judicial record are being scoured for evidence that he has taken positions that are not only conservative, but so radical as to be “outside the mainstream.” Indeed, the charge of being “outside the mainstream” was a potent weapon in the successful fight to oppose Robert Bork’s nomination more than 30 years ago. Even now, it is a label every Supreme Court nominee dearly wants to avoid. There is at least one issue on which Judge Kavanaugh is plainly outside the mainstream of current jurisprudential thought: guns and the Second Amendment. Unlike the four federal appeals courts that have upheld assault weapon bans, Kavanaugh believes that semi-automatic assault rifles...